Twenty years ago this week, Nova Scotia launched the first province wide 9-1-1 service in Canada.
The system went live on July 7, 1997.
Since then operations have been continually upgraded every five years.
The latest update is just wrapping up.
Managed by the Emergency Management Office, the 9-1-1 system connects callers with fire, police, ambulance, and poison information within seconds
Interpretation services are available in more than 170 languages, with texting and TTY services in place for people with hearing or speech impairments.
Each year, one-hundred and seventy dispatchers answer about 220,000 calls from four locations.








